Formula, Flights, Doctors, Gold Coast

We are moving to HK in about a week's time with a 2month old baby. Can someone please advice what brands of formula are available and your experience with them. He is currently on Karicare but we don't know whether that is available in HK. We'll be living at Gold Coast - so would appreciate if someone can also let us know what's available at the supermarket and pharmacy there.


Any tips on how to handle a 11-12 hours non-stop flight with a baby would be very useful.


Also, we've heard about the Matilda International Hospital - how good are they and what services do they offer. Any good experiences with health insurance for babies - please let us know.


Thanks

The best thing to do is call the customer hotline (should be on the tin) and ask them if they know if available in HK or if not the equivalent. I did a search on another forum for you and one mum said her baby was on Karicare and then switched to Cow and Gate (by Nutricia) which is supposedly the equivalent with no problems. I also checked the Park'nShop website and Cow and Gate is readily available in Tuen Mum (where Gold Coast is) which is handy - nothing worse than running out of formula and having to go miles for it!! From personal experience, when my son was a bubs (4 years ago) we switched him from Cow and Gate to SMA without any problems - all babies are different and obviously if you have found a formula that works you want to stick to it but really I believe all the formulas are pretty much the same in terms of ingredients, nutrition etc.


For the flight - try to give baby a bottle on take off and landing to help ease with pressure (can be tricky to time - my son used to always finish the bottle before we took off! but was never bothered with the cabin pressure). Cara's right - most likely your bubs will sleep most of the flight. As you are formula feeding I would suggest you fill all your bottles with sterile water and take formula in a dispenser and make up bottles as and when you need. If your baby likes warm feeds I am sure the stewardesses will be able to warm up for you. What I used to do was take a small thermos of boiled water on board and top up the bottles so the feed was just warm enough for baby to drink.


Matilda Hospital is a fantastic hospital - staff are very friendly, bedside manner great... but they are a private hospital and are very $$$$ but if covered by insurance then it should be fine. Basically health service in HK is of very high standards.


Good Luck and enjoy your time in HK.

Tash3,


FYI, Matilda Hospital is about 1 hour from the Gold Coast. So you really can't rely on it if you need some more urgent out-patient service. I believe the closest private hospital would be the Adventist Hospital in Tsuen Wan.


Anyway, I think you'll have a much better idea where places are once you arrive here. Gold Coast would be a wonderful place for you and your baby. Welcome to Hong Kong!

For Formula, both mine survived on Nan Gold (or something like that) and a lot of my friends have used this brand too. It's readily available at the Wellcome and Watsons in Gold Coast and costs about $120-160 a tin.

Hi. We live at the Gold Coast. And like you, we were on Karicare back in Oz. We had to switch to Cow and Gate as the research (based on the Karicare website) I did reflected that it was the equivalent in HK/China but sold under a different brand name. You can also get pretty much all the other brands at the Welcome shop at the GC. We took a flight from Sydney and our bub had no trouble with the flight - at take off, we made sure he was fed with a bottle of milk to ease the 'ear popping' pressure for the bub. We brought our own blankets for the baby and lining for the bassinet. Good Luck with your move. We love it here at the GC. It's been perfect for our bub.

Thanks so much for the advice/info. Much appreciated.


Spockey - have you used the Adventist Hospital for your bubs? Any feedback on its service would be great. Our baby had hernia surgery a week ago so we don't want to take any chances with medical care.


We've got sufficient readymade formula for the flight but will take our water with us - he gets constipated easily. The new safety regulations relating to the volumes of liquid you can carry are a real pain.


P.S. We are from Auckland - look forward to meeting you at GC.